Carmelo Morales to replace Axel Pons at Catalunya

The Pons Moto2 Team has announced that Carmelo Morales will ride Axel Pons’ bike at this weekend’s Catalunya GP. The 2009 Spanish Superstock Extreme Champion currently rides in the Moto2 class of the Spanish Championship and has plenty of experience with the type of bike, albeit with different tyres and chassis. But the 31-year-old is optimistic that this won’t slow him down during his first race in the world championship.

Carmelo Morales: “First of all I’d like to say that it’s a shame I have to make my World Championship debut because another rider is injured. It’s not how I imagined it to be… I hope that Axel recovers as soon as possible and wish him all the best.
I have to say I’m very happy about this opportunity and I’d never expected it would be with Sito Pons. I am happy about this surprise and very grateful that he thought of me. From what I’ve seen from the outside the Pons Kalex looks pretty good and furthermore I know how much experience this team has. I don’t think it’ll be a problem for me to ride this bike for the first time, even though I don’t have much time to get used to it, or that the tyres are different than the ones we use in the CEV. What I’m most curious about is to see the level of competition, to understand where we are at. Now I’m looking forward to Friday and to take advantage of this great opportunity to ride in the world championship and also to ride at home.”

Sito Pons: “It’s a shame that Axel can’t participate in the Catalunya GP. For him it was very important to ride here and we had high hopes that a good result would be possible for him which would have given him that extra bit of confidence to ride with the front group permanently. But this is racing. For the team this is our home Grand Prix and we want to be at 100%, so we saw the obligation to replace Axel with another rider. At the moment we think the rider who is in best form and able to achieve a good result is Carmelo Morales and we want to give him this opportunity, so he can really show what he is capable of.”

Source: Pons Racing
Photo: Team LaGlisse